HEY Paisanos!

[CorvusCaw]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

Do the Mario!



The Super Mario Bros. Super Show had 52 episodes in the fall of 1989. It debuted on September 4th, 1989 (the day my dog was hit by a car). Each episode included both a live-action storyline featuring Captain Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi, and they would be joined by a special guest each week. Some of these guests are well-known (wow, Maurice LaMarche!), some are... not (remember Harry Blackstone Jr.? Larry Gelman?). The live-action segments definitely pushed Lou Albano to his physical limits and contributed to his spectacular weight loss in the 1990s. He just looks exhausted, especially when there's dancing involved.

Anyway, the show is in so-bad it's good territory by now. The animated segments are based heavily on the American versions of Super Mario Bros. 1 & 2, as SMB3 had not yet been released. King Koopa (i.e. Bowser) is the main villain but his henchmen include SMB2 villains like Mouser (who has a German accent for some reason?)...

Believe it or not, this flaming garbage actually did flesh out the Mario canon. Toad's voice? Yeah, that started with this show.
The lyrics to the end credits are the canon lyrics for the Mario theme. (OK, maybe not officially but fight me on this and you'll regret it)

Anyway, DO THE MARIO (but in German):



This show helped end Communism in Eastern Europe

[Wayoshi]

do da Mario

in celebration I hope for plenty of Mario news in today's Direct

[CorvusCaw]

do da Mario

in celebration I hope for plenty of Mario news in today's Direct

Lou Albano for Smash

[Mr. Big]

[Mechanical Ape]

Swing your fat, from side to side
Come on it’s time to go do the Mario
Take one step, I’m tired now
I’m going to go lay down for a while, kids

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

[CorvusCaw]

Are you hooked on the brothers?

How about now?

[Quanta]

Luigi has been in and out of rehab since 1997 attempting to deal with his Super Mushroom addiction, but his brother keeps pulling him back in.

[Mechanical Ape]

Luigi has been in and out of rehab since 1997 attempting to deal with his Super Mushroom addiction, but his brother keeps pulling him back in.

That’s why he went to Hell before he died!



you can also get there using a warp pipe in 3-2

[Mr. Big]

You go to hell before you die
.
.
.
.
.
.
please

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

You go to hell before you die
.
.
.
.
.
.
please

[The Ghost of Ember]

ohhhh, this is the bad place

[Pocket]

As dumb as this show was, I think I prefer the plumber-from-Brooklyn characterization over the one Nintendo went with for Mario 64 and onward. I wonder if they switched because they wanted their kids' game mascot to be as cute as possible, or to try to distance themselves from the awful live-action movie.

With that in mind, here's Vinny playing a romhack of Mario 64 where it's all Super Show! themed.

[Gloomy Rube]

Wow I just want to see the video game why is this editing so slapdash aaa

[Fizzbuzz]

Wow I just want to see the video game why is this editing so slapdash aaa

Vinesauce's main channel uploads heavily cut versions of the streams featuring the funniest parts of whatever's going on, but they also have other channels where they upload full stream VODs. Here's the uncut version of that game.

[Gloomy Rube]

Ahh, thanks a lot! I didn't know that!

[Pocket]

I didn't figure people would take kindly to clicking play on an embedded video only to discover it was over an hour long. Also there's actually two episodes; I forget if he had to start over after playing the demo or not.

[Gloomy Rube]

Also regarding this show, I think a big part of why it was so successful, especially compared to the super mario world cartoon, is 'cause you can tell that 1: They're having a lot of fun making the show, and 2: they're super earnest about everything. It's 'We wanna make a fun cartoon for kids based on mario" and they did it.

[Vivianinatoga]

Remember the episode where Captain Lou Albano wanted to hang out with Mario but they ended up playing cat and mouse all episode? And Cyndi Lauper was along for the shenanigans by sheer coincidence? Good times, good times.

[Madeline]

I’m still not entirely sure why Cyndi Lauper and Lou Albano hung out together, but it made kid me happy every time

[CorvusCaw]

Remember the episode where Captain Lou Albano wanted to hang out with Mario but they ended up playing cat and mouse all episode? And Cyndi Lauper was along for the shenanigans by sheer coincidence? Good times, good times.

We just watched that one and the Magic Johnson one. They're bonkers.

[Vivianinatoga]

I’m still not entirely sure why Cyndi Lauper and Lou Albano hung out together, but it made kid me happy every time

They're father/daughter IRL. It's also why Lou plays the father in the music video to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

[Gloomy Rube]

They're father/daughter IRL. It's also why Lou plays the father in the music video to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

The Cyndi Lauper wikipedia page says her dad was named "Fred" and was German/swiss so this seems unlikely.

Edit: And Lou Albano's page says that playing the father in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was actually the start of their friendship.

[CorvusCaw]

It's still an extremely unlikely team-up

[Mechanical Ape]

Another unlikely team-up: Lou managed NRBQ for a while in the '80s. How did this happen? I have no idea.

[CorvusCaw]

The Netflix version of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show left in the previews for the Legend of Zelda cartoon (which is not on Netflix). Also some segments have a small bar of static at the top of the screen, and an ad for Domino's pizza was left intact in some of them. It's kinda fantastic.

Speaking of the Legend of Zelda cartoon, it has very-young Tabitha St. Germain voicing Spryte, the fairy who is extremely horny for Link (who himself is continually sexually harassing Zelda).

[Gloomy Rube]

[CorvusCaw]

I'm up to episode 27 in my rewatch

[CorvusCaw]

There's a grand unifying theory of the Mario universe in working on here. Things are deep

[CorvusCaw]

OK, so two early episodes are focused on the Princess trying to save the orphanage, but we never see the orphanage and I doubt it exists. Now in episode 27, it's revealed there's a secret underground spy lab, and I think the princess embezzled the orphanage money to fund it

[CorvusCaw]

Did I not mention the cover songs, which don't appear in the Netflix or most YouTube versions? Holy crap, they are glorious.

They come out of fucking nowhere and most of them make no sense at all to the plot or the action taking place. They usually are 30 seconds or so but some of them stick around a long time.



Oh, this is in the first act, by the way.

[Gloomy Rube]

Here's the best quality version of that scene currently on the internet and yes that's amazing.

[CorvusCaw]

I've seen 35 and that's probably the most amazing cover song placement. Rockin' Robin and Splish Splash are close, though.

[CorvusCaw]

Well this just happened

[Octavia]

I definitely remember Milli Vanilli being in an episode

[Madeline]

I definitely remember Milli Vanilli being in an episode

[Gloomy Rube]

People cheering and getting hyped for "blame it on the rain" is a new experience for me.